The 3rd edition of JAF Grand Prix Fuji Sprint Cup was held at Fuji Speedway on November 16-18. The season closer event included the two major Japanese domestic race categories, Super GT and Formula Nippon, in a single meeting, as the special round of the both series, and has already become a popular fixture at the end of motor racing season in Japan.

As the name "Sprint Cup" shows, there were two races for the each class of Super GT cars in the weekend, one 100km race for each of two drivers of a car, instead of the two driver semi-endurance race with driver change which is the standard format of the Super GT series.

This meant, for the drivers, they didn't have to look after the tires to save them for the other driver or there was no need to save fuel to minimize the time spent at a pit stop which they normally did in the regular championship rounds. So the drivers were allowed to drive as fast as they could but, on the other hand, they wouldn't have any help of a good strategy and the true performance of each car and driver would clearly become visible.

For this event, there were two Yokohama shoed cars in the GT500 class, D'station ADVAN GT-R and WedsSport ADVAN SC430, as usual. However, Andre Couto who had driven the latter car during the season was absent because he drove in the WTCC's Macau round on the same day. So the team called on Marino Franchitti who is based in U.S. as the stand-in to pair with Seiji Ara.

The sky was clear on Friday, the qualifying day, with the air/surface temperatures at 16/19 degrees Celsius, which was almost perfect condition to set the fastest possible time, at the time to start the 20 minute qualifying session for Race 1.

The two ADVAN equipped cars went out on the track and, after an out lap and a tire warming up lap, made their first attempt to qualify. Hironobu Yasuda in D'station ADVAN GT-R set 1'31"439, while Seiji Ara clocked 1'32"590. Then they came back to their pits to replace the tires for the second attempts. In the second half of the session, Yasuda went out again and managed to improve his best time to 1'31"428 which was good enough to secure the sixth grid and the highest qualifying position among the Nissan GT-R drivers. But Ara couldn't find a clear lap to make another all-out attack and had to settle for lowly 14th, although he also improved his time to 1'31"987.

It got colder when the qualifying for Race 2 began and the temperatures dropped to 13/14 degrees. In this session, Bjorn Wirdheim at the wheel of D'station ADVAN GT-R set 1'32"106 in his first time attacked and then bettered it to 1'31"650 in the second attempt. With this time, the Swede took the ninth grid for his race. The Super GT debutant, Franchitti in WedsSport ADVAN SC430 had a hard time to get into the 1'32" bracket for a while but managed to clock 1'32"401 in the closing minutes of the session and sat on the 13th grid.

The weather dramatically changed on Saturday and the track was totally rain-soaked. The rain became even heavier, when Race 1 for the GT500 class was about to start, to the extent that the delay or even cancellation of the race had to be discussed. Plus, it got freezing cold and the surface temperature dropped down to only 10 degrees with the air temperature at 11 but the race was on.

Yasuda and Ara made reasonable starts but the former had aquaplaning at Turn 1 which cost him two places, while the latter went off the track at the first corner because he couldn't reduce the speed enough to turn the corner due to the bad track conditions.
They had a lot of ups and downs in the following laps. Ara spun on Lap 7, which sent him back to 15th, although he regained a position on the next lap because of the retirement of a car ahead of him. Yasuda was running in ninth but he decided to come in the pit to adjust the tire pressure, in an attempt to mitigate the difficulty he had, on Lap 11, as the field was running behind the Safety Car from Lap 9 because of the worsened track conditions. However, soon after his pit stop, the race was stopped by the red flag and was declared to be terminated. According to the rules, the final result was decided by the positions at the end of Lap 10, so D'station ADVAN GT-R was classified as ninth and WedsSport ADVAN SC430 as 14th.

But, on Sunday, the sun came back and the sky was clear again in a sharp contrast with the bad weather on the day before. With the air/surface temperatures at 13/14 degrees, the conditions were quite similar to that of the qualifying day.

Wirdheim in D'station ADVAN GT-R made a good getaway from the ninth grid and completed the opening lap in seventh. Then he moved up to sixth by overtaking Raybrig HSV-010 on the pit straight on Lap 2. The Swede looked unstoppable and gained one more position at Dunlop Corner by passing S Road Reito Mola GT-R two laps later. While he had to give way to the pursuing Raybrig car on Lap 8, he remained in fifth because a car ahead of him dropped down. On Lap 10, Wirdheim overtook KeePer Kraft SC430 and moved up to fourth.

After a fierce battle with Motul Autech GT-R in the closing stage, he lost the position to the direct opponent on Lap 18 but D'station ADVAN GT-R eventually finished the race in fifth, which was still an achievement, considering the fact that Wirdheim had started the race from the ninth grid.

Franchitti in WedsSport ADVAN SC430 drove carefully in the beginning of the race, as this was his first appearance ever in the Super GT, and fell down to 15th at the end of the first lap. However, he gradually gained more confidence as the tires warmed up properly and exchanged the position with Epson HSV-010 quite a few times. And, thanks to the two cars ahead of him making pit stops for repair and penalty, Franchitti gained two positions and finished the race in 13th.

　[Result : 14th. in the Race 1]
"The race was so tough for me because I couldn't warm up those tires due to the heavy rain. My start wasn't too bad and I was determined to gain a few position in the early stages. But I couldn't slow down the car enough for the first corner and had no choice but to go straight and off the track... The grip level was surprisingly low because the temperature got lower than expected, plus the rain became even heavier during the race.
"Everybody on the track seemed to be struggling with the conditions. I thought it might be a little better once the tires were warmed up properly. But, when the rain got heavier, all I could do was just stay on the track and, yes, I actually failed to do so once and had a spin. I wish I could have had a good race and have gotten some prize money, hopefully. I am disappointed at my race today."

　[Result : 9th. in the Race 1]
"The fact that I was the fastest qualifier among the GT-Rs, for the first time this year, gave me a certain confidence and it was really good for Yokohama Tire because, among the same cars, the Yokohama shoed car was the fastest. But our rain tires simply weren't suited to the conditions and I couldn't fight with the opponents properly at all, which was a shame for me.
"The start itself was good but I hit a paddle on the inside of Turn 1 and started aquaplaning there. So there was no grip and all I could do was just turn the corner without going off the track. After that, my pace wasn't very good and I thought it might be a good idea to adjust the tire pressure in the pit so that we could use the rest of the race as a testing. But the race was aborted at the worst moment for me and there was nothing I could do."